Little Dialers

Your child is unfortunately put into an emergency situation, what is the most important piece of information that they should know? If you answered, their phone number, then you are correct. Recently, Chris Hall and his wife, developed Little Dialers for the iPhone. This parent application could not have come at a more appropriate time. We think that it is fair to say that toddlers love playing with “real” phones rather than pretend ones. Through exploration of a realistic iPhone keypad, important life skills will be further reinforced via Little Dialers. Whether you have a toddler, preschooler or an elementary student, knowing how to get in touch with a parent or guardian is critical and applies to you.

Upon entering Little Dialers for the first time, you will be instructed to enter a phone number. To guide your little one, there are two levels of reinforcement: learning and mastery mode. It is important to note that users will be provided a great deal of support as they learn their telephone number(s). With a very simple design, it’s an application that meets the needs of visual, auditory and tactile learners. To make a phone call, users will slowly become familiar with certain vocabulary words like: area code and digits. In addition, they will begin to see a pattern in the actual telephone number (3,3,4). As your child fiddles through the learning mode, they will notice that the telephone display will show the preset number at the top. As correct numbers are tapped and matched, they will be shaded in. If incorrect, a buzzer will sound allowing continuous opportunities to make a match. To properly reinforce basic numbers with the incorporation of ones phone number, make sure that your little one doesn’t get too “tap happy.” If multiple numbers are pressed at one time, the audio might appear jumbled and could confuse the user. It is important to note that the learning mode should be repeated over several times to ensure comprehension.

As a user feels more comfortable, they can then set the challenge a little higher. Through memorization, they can move to the mastery mode. To change from one mode to the next, simply tap the display screen and the preset number will disappear. Visual and audio cues will be provided for correct and incorrect answers. A note to the developer, since this is the mastery mode, it might be interesting to remove the buzzing option and see how they will do without guidance. At the completion of entering what they think is their ten digit phone number, a user could press the “call button.” As with the learning mode, a trophy is awarded for a successful entry. However, if incorrect, might it be possible to highlight in a different color those numbers incorrectly typed, thus providing them another opportunity to get the phone number correct.

Have you begun to ask what if I have multiple numbers that my son or daughter should know? Excellent question and certainly something that our developers have taken into consideration. Simply open the settings within your iPhone device that stores the data for Little Dialers. Once mastery of a phone number occurs, new ones can be inputted. Overall, Applicable2U was impressed with the simplicity, yet very realistic application that Little Dialers has to offer any family. It’s a critical skill that all children should be aware of for any situation at home, at school or public setting. If you would like to learn more about Christopher Hall, please visit his website here.  Or you can prepare your little one for that emergency situation now by downloading Little Dialers from you iTunes library here.